David Hughes is the Daily Telegraph's chief leader writer. He has been covering British politics for 30 years.

Gordon Brown is right to reject a public inquiry into Iraq

It's the first sensible thing he's said in months. In rejecting calls for a public inquiry into the Iraq war, the Prime Minister uttered just three crisp words – "lawyers, lawyers, lawyers".

It's not just the surreal example of the Bloody Sunday inquiry – which makes Jarndyce and Jarndyce look like a model of judicial dispatch – that lends weight to his argument that a full-blown public inquiry is to be avoided.

It's the evidence of what has happened so far over Iraq that makes the most persuasive case. Lord Hutton's inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly was a full, public inquiry. I sat through every single session and was staggered by what I heard. The behaviour of politicians, Downing Street functionaries and senior intelligence officials defied belief.

Yet what did Hutton conclude? That it was all the BBC's fault. The only heads to roll belonged to the Chairman and Director General of the BBC. Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell, John Scarlett and the rest of the sorry crew claimed complete vindication. What a charade.

Compare and contrast the "private" inquiry conducted by Lord Butler into the intelligence failings before the Iraq invasion. Conducted behind closed doors, the Butler inquiry winkled out the full gruesome story of duff intelligence and disingenuous politicians. His report was utterly damning, exposing in forensic detail the failings both of the intelligence community and their political masters. It is shameful that there were no resignations.

The moral of the tale? It's simplistic to believe that a public inquiry will deliver a truer verdict than a private one.